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Feb 13-16, 2012

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W O R K S H O P

The Hows and Whens of Tape Backups

March 5, 2001
By Howard Marks

Tape Backup Strategies

Buy a changer or, even better, a tape library (a changer with two or more drives). It may seem expensive at first, but the cost of having a human being change the tapes every day and buying multiple tape drives adds up quickly.

Make a full backup of every server at least every 30 days.

Set up a schedule of differential or progressive backups nightly and retain them for 30 days.

Make a separate set of full off-site backups weekly. Retain 90 days or longer as determined by business management.

Archive permanent data like tax records separately, preferably to two different types of media (that is, CD-ROM and tape).